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Lego Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Lego Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a 2009 American computer animation science fiction adventure film. It is the fourth film in the Indiana Jones series created by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg. Released nineteen years after the previous film, the film acknowledges the age of its star Harrison Ford by being set in 1957. It pays tribute to the science fiction B-movies of the era, pitting Indiana Jones against Soviet agents—led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett)—searching for a telepathic crystal skull. Indiana is aided by his former lover Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and their son Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf). Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Jim Broadbent are also part of the supporting cast. Plot In 1957 during the Cold War, World War II veteran Indiana Jones and his partner George "Mac" McHale are kidnapped by Soviet agents under Colonel Dr. Irina Spalko. The Soviets infiltrate a warehouse labeled "Warehouse 51" in Nevada and force Jones to locate a non-human corpse having a crystal skull, recovered ten years earlier. Upon its discovery, Mac reveals he is a double agent working for the Soviets. But Jones escapes, unsuccessfully attempts to retrieve the skull, and in a fight with Spalko's sadistic henchman, Colonel Antonin Dovchenko, they both fall onto a rocket sled, which ignites and speeds them away. Jones staggers away and, still pursued, arrives in a model town at the Nevada Test Site, minutes before an atomic bomb test, and takes shelter in a lead-lined refrigerator. Jones is rescued, decontaminated, and arrested by FBI agents, who suspect him of working for the Soviets; and though freed on the recommendation of General Ross, who vouches for him, he is put on indefinite leave of absenn indefinite leave of absence from Marshall College. Jones is approached by greaser Henry "Mutt" Williams, who tells him that Harold Oxley had found a crystal skull in Peru, suffered a mental breakdown, and was later kidnapped. In return, Jones tells Mutt about the legend of crystal skulls found in Akator. Mutt gives Jones a letter from his mother, who is also held captive, containing a riddle written by Oxley in an ancient Native American language. KGB agents try to take the letter, but Jones and Mutt evade them and reach Peru. At the local psychiatric hospital, Oxley's scribbles on the walls and floor of his cell lead them to the grave of Francisco de Orellana, a Conquistador searching for Akator. They discover the skull at the grave, with Jones reasoning that Oxley had returned it there. On leaving the grave site, Jones and Mutt are captured by Mac and the Soviets and taken to their camp in the Amazon jungle, where they find Oxley and Mutt's mother, Marion Ravenwood, who later reveals that Mutt is Jones' son, Henry Jones III. Mac claims to the bound and restrained Jones he is really a CIA double-agent to regain Jones' trust. Spalko believes that the crystal skull belongs to an alien life form and holds great psychic power, and the possibility that finding more skulls in Akator will grant the Soviets the advantage of psychic warfare. Oxley's utterances being incomprehensible, from looking into the skull's eyes too long, Spalko uses the skull on Jones to enable him to understand Oxley and identify a route to Akator. Jones and his four allies escape with the skull into the Amazon. They elude giant ants after Dovchenko loses a fight with Jones and is devoured by the hungry ants. Jones and his allies survive three waterfalls in an Amphibious vehicle, as many of the Soviets fall from a cliff while trying to pursue them. Jones and Oxley then identify a rock formation that leads them to Akator, unaware that Mac is still loyal to Spalko and has been dropping transceivers to allow the surviving Soviets to track them. Having escaped "the living dead" guarding the city and gained access to the temple, filled with artifacts from several ancient civilizations, Jones believes the aliens were "archaeologists" studying the different cultures of Earth. The five enter a chamber containing the crystal skeletons of thirteen enthroned skeletal crystal beings, one missing its skull. Spalko arrives and presents the skull to this skeleton. It suddenly flies from her hands to the skeleton and rejoins, whereupon the aliens reanimate and telepathically offer a reward in ancient Mayan through Oxley. A portal to their own world becomes activated, and Spalko demands knowledge equal to the aliens'. The thirteen aliens fuse into one, and in the process of receiving the overwhelming knowledge, she is disintegrated and sucked into the portal. Jones, Marion, Mutt, and Oxley escape, while Mac and the Soviets are also drawn into the portal; Mac tells Jones with a wink of his eye, "I'm gonna be all right". The survivors watch as the temple crumble, revealing a flying saucer rising from the debris, which vanishes into the "space between spaces" while the hollow in the valley floor left by its departure is flooded by the waters of the Amazon. The following year, Jones is reinstated at Marshall College and made an associate dean. He and Marion are then married in a church. Cast Harrison Ford reprises the role of Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. To prepare for the role, the 64-year-old Ford spent three hours a day at a gym, practiced with the bullwhip for two weeks,3 and relied on a high-protein diet of fish and vegetables.4 Ford had kept fit during the series' hiatus anyway, as he hoped for another film.5 He performed many of his own stunts because stunt technology had become safer since 1989, and he also felt it improved his performance.6 He argued, "The appeal of Indiana Jones isn't his youth but his imagination, his resourcefulness. His physicality is a big part of it, especially the way he gets out of tight situations. But it's not all hitting people and falling from high places. My ambition in action is to have the audience look straight in the face of character and not at the back of a capable stuntman's head. I hope to continue that no matter how old I get."7 Ford felt his return would reduce American ageism (he refused to dye his hair for the role), because of the Production Development The second draft's prologue is set in Borneo in 1949, with Indiana proposing to Dr. Elaine McGregor after defeating pirates. She abandons him at the altar, because the government requests her aid in decoding an alien cylinder (covered in Egyptian, Mayan and Sanskrit symbols) in New Mexico. Indiana pursues her, and battles Russians agents and aliens for the cylinder. The script featured army ants, a rocket sled fight, Indiana surviving an atomic explosion by sealing himself in a fridge, and a climactic battle between the U.S. military and flying saucers. Henry Jones, Sr., Short Round, Sallah, Marion Ravenwood and Willie cameo at Indiana and Elaine's wedding(s). Indiana is also a former colonel and was assigned to the O.S.S. during World War II. Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars script by Jeb Stuart, dated February 20, 199537 During the late 1970s, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg made a deal with Paramount Pictures for five Indiana Jones films.38 Ford disliked the new angle, telling Lucas, "No way am I being in a Steven Spielberg movie like that."23 Spielberg himself, who depicted aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, resisted it. Lucas came up with a story, which Jeb Stuart turned into a script from October 1993 to May 1994.12 (Stuart had previously written The Fugitive, which starred Ford.) Lucas wanted Indiana to get married, which would allow Henry Jones, Sr. to return, expressing concern over whether his son is happy with what he has accomplished. After he learned that Joseph Stalin was interested in psychic warfare, he decided to have Russians as the villains and the aliens to have psychic powers.39 Following Stuart's next draft, Lucas hired Last Crusade writer Jeffrey Boam to write the next three versions, the last of which was completed in March 1996. Three months later, Independence Day was released, and Spielberg told Lucas he would not make another alien invasion film. Lucas decided to focus on the Star Wars Sequels. Soundtrack "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey is heard on the car radio of Mutt's vehicle and it is played fully over the end credits. John Williams began composing the score in October 2007; ten days of recording sessions wrapped on March 6, 2008, at Sony Pictures Studios. Williams described composing for the Indiana Jones universe again as "like sitting down and finishing a letter that you started 25 years ago". He reused Indiana's theme as well as Marion's from the first film, and also composed five new motifs for Mutt, Spalko and the skull. Williams gave Mutt's a swashbuckling feel, and homaged film noir and 1950s B-movies for Spalko and the crystal skull respectively. As an in-joke, Williams incorporated a measure and a half of Johannes Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture" when Indiana and Mutt crash into the library. The soundtrack features a Continuum, an instrument often used for sound effects instead of music. The Concord Music Group released the soundtrack on May 20, 2008. See also *Lego Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark *Lego Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom *Lego Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade External links *Lego Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at Internet Movie Database